Category: Painting

• Tupolev SB2 – Part Two – In Russia Model Make You

  

  If I had been in any doubt looking at the crude plastic on the sprue runners, it was dispelled when I got to the ” Made In USSR ” stamped into the plastic. I was relieved. Up until that moment I had been worried that this kit was an elaborate practical joke and that Alan…

  Dick Stein

  February 13, 2020

  1:72 scale, Model Airplane, Painting, Russian models, Scale Models, Soviet aircraft, subassembly

  Russian, Soviet model

• Percival Provost T Mk 1 – Part Three – A Decent Set Of Clothes

  

  The Percival Provost is done – and inside of a week. I am not surprised, as it is a rather simple kit on a mechanical basis. That is as a trainer should be – after all, the student pilot needs all the help he can get and the flying school doesn’t want to do more…

  Dick Stein

  February 9, 2020

  1:72 scale, British aircraft, Colour Schemes, Decals, Lacquer, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Uncategorized

  Percival, RAF, trainer

• Percival Provost T Mk 1 – Part two – Just Wants A Red Nose

  

  And clown shoes. And a tiny little car to leap out of… I am quite taken with the Percival Provost as a sensible little training aircraft. The idea of putting the student and instructor side by side is excellent, and the fact that it can be done behind a radial engine even better. The landing…

  Dick Stein

  February 8, 2020

  1:72 scale, British aircraft, Colour Schemes, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models

  colour scheme, Percival, trainer

• Percival Provost T Mk1 – Part One – The Box In A Box

  

  I was delighted when my friend Warren presented me with this Matchbox Percival Provost – inasmuch as it has passed through three sets of hands for free I hope to make mine the last ones before it becomes an airplane. It was found inside another model box purchased at a secondhand arms and militaria fair…

  Dick Stein

  February 7, 2020

  1:72 scale, British aircraft, Colour Schemes, finances, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Secondhand

  Matchbox, Percival, RAF, trainer

• The Scale Modelling Culture

  

  Or ” How I learned to cut throats on a green plastic mat “. As scale model builders we mess with the ideas of popular culture all the time. The vast majority of the population who have never built anything smaller than an IKEA bookshelf have no idea what closely focusing on a fresh kit…

  Dick Stein

  January 31, 2020

  finances, Miniature Philosophy, Museums, Painting, Scale Models, Uncategorized, Workshop

  culture, model builders, Painting

• Vought Corsair F4U-1 – Part Four – Delivery In A Plain Envelope

  

  Students of military aviation are very quickly attuned to the finer points of insignia, markings, and unit numbers. You have only to go to some of the more intense internet modelling forums to read people engaging in passive/aggressive arguments about the exact position of the ” No Step ” stencils on the Hurricane Mk XXXIV…

  Dick Stein

  January 24, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, camouflage, Colour Schemes, Miniature Philosophy, Model Airplane, Painting, research, Scale Models

  Corsair, factory paint job, Tamiya

• The Painting Stand

  

  We need a new accessory for scale model building…as if we do not have enough already… We need a cheap, sturdy, steady, adjustable stand to hold a model while it is being spray painted. It must be capable of holding the model firmly and in balance, and the spray must be able to reach all…

  Dick Stein

  January 19, 2020

  1:72 scale, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Tools, Uncategorized, Workshop

  jig, painting. tools, stand

• Grumman Widgeon – Part Two – Port and Cheese

  

  I cannot decide now that the Grumman Widgeon is done and sitting on the photo floor, whether I enjoyed myself building it or not. If you go by the mis-fitting engines, nacelles, windscreen, and landing gear, it was a misery. If you looked at the wing, fuselage, and tail assemblies as they mated, it wasn’t…

  Dick Stein

  January 18, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Colour Schemes, Lacquer, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Utility Models

  Airfix, Grumman Widgeon, Portuguese Navy

• Grumman Widgeon – Part One – The Small Goose

  

  The Sherriff’s Mini Cars shelves had some of the best and oddest kit shopping I have been able to do for some time. Stashes had disgorged treasures and/or trash and they were sensibly priced for all that. I have no idea how new the Widgeon is, not how long it may have mouldered on the…

  Dick Stein

  January 17, 2020

  1:72 scale, American aircraft, Civil aircraft, Colour Schemes, Miniature Philosophy, Model Airplane, Painting, Scale Models, Utility Models

  Airfix, flaws and faults, Grumman Widgeon, old kit

• De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Four – Baked Bat

  

  It’s not your eyes. Your eyes are fine. It’s not your computer. You need not re-calibrate it. The scale model Vampire T.11 really looks like that. And its counterpart in the Negev does too. The desert sun has very little air shade, no ground shade, and winds that blast from all directions. The paint that…

  Dick Stein

  January 13, 2020

  1:72 scale, British aircraft, Colour Schemes, Model Airplane, Museums, Painting, Scale Models, Uncategorized, Weathering

  canopy, De Havilland Vampire, Negev, Schmatterim